I am almost done with my graduate school applications (yes, I never have to do this again - unless I’m rejected everywhere), which means that I’ve had to reproduce many of my scores.
Where do young amateur composers like myself go to get our scores printed and bound and look somewhat professional-looking? That’s right, KINKO’S.
Kinko’s (or the place formerly known as FedEx Kinko’s because NOW it is supposedly called FedEx Office) is a place that composers both love and hate. Actually, more hate than love. Mostly hate, now that I think of it.
I think us composers have a few Kinko’s stories that we’d like to forget. Mine are somewhat tame compared to others that I have heard. One of my professors regaled us with a story of when he was having his orchestra score bound. The workers at Kinko’s bound his score “presentation style,” so instead of turning the pages from right to left, they turned front to back. He said that he pretty much shot through the roof and now describes the workers at Kinko’s as having a “collective IQ of 12.”
Why is binding a score so hard?! Why are booklets so hard to assemble? Why is it that we have to pay more for a 8.5 x 14 piece of card stock because it’s not as standard as 8.5x11 or 11x17? Seriously Kinko’s, be thankful that we’re not asking for European sizes. Because we neurotic composers would ask for it if we were given the option.
Anyway, in light of the Thanksgiving holiday, I will be thankful for a place like Kinko’s, especially because I have no other place to get my scores bound. (I also want to appease the Kinko’s gods, because I do have one more application to go, and I don’t want to be screwed over.)
So, thank you Kinko’s. Thank you for binding my scores, because I don’t have a binding machine at home. Thank you for printing my music on both sides, because it is a royal pain for me to print on one side, feed my printer, and then print on the other side. Thank you also for bringing composers together, because we all have something in common - issues with Kinko’s.